Lawrence Walsh: Beware of Internet crooks posing as the
IRS

But that's what a scammer was doing when he called Ed
Wuenstel of Hays.

When Mr. Wuenstel's cell phone rang last week, the
caller ID read: "Out of Area." He said that lack of identification
immediately made him suspicious.

"I never use my cell phone for any
business transaction, and I am on every Do Not Call list."

The man on
the phone said he was calling from the Internal Revenue Service. Mr.
Wuenstel asked the caller how he got his number. The man said it came up
on a computer. He then asked Mr. Wuenstel for his Social Security number
"to verify" who he was.

"I told him that if he really was from the
IRS, he already knew what my Social Security number was," Mr. Wuenstel
said.

The caller became indignant.

"You mean you will not answer
questions for the IRS."

"You are correct," Mr. Wuenstel said. "Put
your information request in writing and send it to me." He said he then
"thanked" the caller and hung up.

"Some people might be scared into
responding to this kind of call," said Mr. Wuenstel, 69, a retired state
employee who worked in the unemployment compensation office. "You might
want to warn people."

It turns out that such calls are only one kind
of fraud the IRS is combating.

Last month, the agency issued several
warnings on its Web site -- www.irs.gov
-- about fraudulent use of the IRS name or logo by crooks trying to gain
access to consumers' financial information to steal their identity and
assets.

Such activity is known as phishing, as in "fishing for
information." It works like this:

Internet crooks send e-mail
messages to trick unsuspecting victims into revealing personal and
financial information that can be used to steal the victims' identity.
One of the phony e-mails currently in vogue tells the victims they are
entitled to a tax refund. Another implies the recipients are under
scrutiny by the agency's Criminal Investigation Division.

The agency
said e-mails "claiming to come from tax-refunds@irs.gov, admin@irs.gov and similar variations told the
recipients they were eligible to receive a tax refund for a given amount,"
often $63.80. It directed the recipients to claim it by using a link
in the e-mail that sent them to a Web site.

"The site, a copy of the
IRS Web site, displayed an interactive page similar to a genuine IRS one,"
the agency said. "However, it had been modified to ask for personal and
financial information that the genuine IRS interactive page does not
require."

The IRS said the Treasury Inspector General for Tax
Administration "has found numerous separate Web sites in at least 20
different countries hosting variations on this scheme.

So what should
taxpayers do?

"Everyone should beware of these scam artists," Acting
IRS Commissioner Kevin Brown said in a statement. "Always exercise caution
when you receive unsolicited e-mails or e-mails from senders you don't
know."

Mr. Brown said the IRS doesn't send unsolicited e-mails or
ask for detailed personal and financial information. Neither does it ask
people for their PIN numbers, passwords or similar secret access
information for their credit card, bank or other financial accounts.

The IRS said anyone who receives questionable e-mails claiming to
come from the IRS shouldn't open any attachments or click on any links.
Instead, it should forward them to phishing@irs.gov.

The agency said it has
received more than 17,700 e-mails from taxpayers reporting more than 240
separate phishing incidents since it established the phishing mailbox last
year.

The IRS said it can use the information from the suspicious
e-mails, including their Universal Resource Locator (URLs) and any links
in them to trace the hosting Web site and alert authorities to help shut
them down.

To report the fraudulent use of the IRS name, logo, forms
or other IRS property, like the phony call Mr. Wuenstel received, call the
toll-free hot line 1-800-366-4484 or visit the Web site of the Treasury
Inspector General for Tax Administration -- www.tigta.gov.

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